Psylocke #6 Is It Ghosts? I Know a Guy…

Alyssa Wong and the rest of the creative team take a break from the solo ninja physical escapades of our titlular hero and use this chapter to dig into Kwannon’s psyche in an issue that balances psychic horror mystery while also giving Wong the opportunity to tie Kwannon back into the larger mutant universe. By featuring not only several of her current team mates including a very fun written Magik, a perfectly irritating Quinten Quire and characters like Rogue and Death Dream Wong changes it up from the first arc, which shows off versatility as well as offers us a look at how Wong writes other X characters.

The issue focuses on several moments where Kwannon see’s or interacts with things no one else can see, the first happens while on a mission with Magik to try capture one of Fitzroy’s upstarts (a very nice call back to an earlier X-Men issue in the current adjectiveless series) which goes awry when Kwannon is suddenly confronted by the figure of her lost daughter Himeko. What’s interesting is how ambiguous Wong plays it, because it feels like a manifestation of Kwannon’s guilt, made up yurei or child ubume brought to life as Kwannon deals with her trauma. I’ve spoken in my other review’s on the delightful use of the butterfly as a symbol for various things across the series. This issue is no different, with an origami purple butterfly appearing on the back of this ghostly manifestation of Himeko’s neck, which is often used to symbolize infant loss or rememberance and while I don’t know if this was intentional, its the kind of tiny detail that’s characterized the excellent in tent of the creative team to tell Kwannon’s story on several levels.

The second encounter involves the same psychic horror we saw at the end of issue #5, a dual headed twisted looking versions of Kwannon currently and a twisted version of when she was Revanche with the purple hair and outfit to match. After only seeing the apparition as she dines with Magik, things take a sinister turn as Kwannon calls her current lover John Greycrow. Wong writes them as a couple really well but that’s secondary here as Kwannon suddenly finds herself in a physical tussle with thie psychic manifestation which ultimately leads her to asking Magik to take her to someone who can help her with these “Ghosts” enter Deathdream. However something goes very wrong in the meeting as Rogue shows up at the worst possible moment and the issue ends on a cliffhanger moment but not before it’s revealed that Kwannon has been carrying some sort of weird psychic passenger who she may have inadvertently passed on to the young mutant!

The art from Vincenzo Carratu and Moises Hidalgo continues to be excellent and while they don’t get to show off a ton of that amazing dynamism of Kwannon in motion this issue they do get play with other ideas as they get to show off facial expression and lot’s of character interaction, which is always expressive and in synch with the script’s dialogue. The ghostly manifestations are appropriately creepy and dark and the two artists styles continue to exceptionally complimentary and there’s never a jarring change when pages alternate between the two. The issue get’s to explore various environments from the street to the X-canteen to Kwannon’s quarters as well as a graveyard. Colorist Sifuentes-Sujo get’s to play with a wider than usual color palette but always makes sure those purple undertones are there to underscore who’s book this is. VC’s Ariana Maher continues to be one of the most consistently strong and entertaining letterers working today and the sound effect of the week is definitely VORP! Mahmud Asrar continues to deliver absolute pure Psychic Ninja Butterfly perfection with a cover that uses the contrast of a black background to make the purple and pink signature of the character pop on the cover.